What is Radix (XRD)? Web3 cryptocurrency accounting and treasury

What is Radix (XRD)?

Radix is a Layer-1 smart contract platform, starting from the problem of how to create a better global financial system and working backwards from that goal.

After more than ten years of research, experimentation, and development, Radix is ready to revolutionize the world of DeFi with Scrypto, a programming language focused on its visual assets; Radix Engine, the world’s first programmable DeFi Engine; and Cerberus, a consensus algorithm providing atomic composability with linear scalability.

What makes Radix unique?

Radix unique at every level of stack technology, providing:

• A programming language focused on unique assets, Scrypto, aims to significantly improve the Web3 and DeFi development experience by providing assets (tokens) as a key feature of the language.
• A unique Radix Engine virtual machine (the world’s first ‘DeFi Machine’) promises to make DeFi like game machines have made game development.
• A unique consensus algorithm, Cerberus, weaves consensus through a massive shardspace. With every transaction being sharded and atomic, this is what gives Cerberus the unique combination of atomicity and linear scalability.

Who is the founder of Radix?

Dan Hughes, living in the United Kingdom, discovered Bitcoin in 2012. With a background in developing telecommunications technology, he could see the significant impact that blockchain could bring to global finance and beyond. After researching Bitcoin for a year, he started the eMunie project (later renamed Radix) on Bitcointalk in May 2013.

In the next five years, Dan will focus on solving the biggest issue at the time: scalability. He invented and tested several consensus structures, including Blocktrees, Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs), Channelled Asynchronous State Trees (CAST), Tempo, and Cerberus.

In 2017, Piers Ridyard joined as CEO, the project was renamed Radix, and the capital was raised from Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of TransferWise; and LocalGlobe, a leading European venture capital fund.

Cerberus’ breakthrough in 2020 created the world’s first atomic multi-segment consensus protocol - capable of providing unlimited linear scalability.

2020 also witnessed the launch of Radix Tokens (Jersey) Limited, a entity in Jersey (Channels Islands) that issued XRD and holds the treasury of Radix Foundation. The CEO of RTJL is Andrew Jarrett.

In July 2021, the first version of Radix Public Network, “Olympia”, was deployed.

The groundbreaking DeFi development language, Scrypto, was released as early access in December 2021.

The “Babylon” version of Radix brings smart contracts written in Scrypto to the mainnet and is expected to launch in the first half of 2023.

What is XRD Token?

The original token of Radix, XRD, is used for staking and transaction fees. Staking XRD helps protect the network and provides a mechanism for holders to receive rewards.

● Means of Exchange – XRD serves as the primary means of exchange within the Radix ecosystem. It is used for transaction settlements and can be utilized in various DeFi applications built on the Radix platform.

● Transaction Fees - Transactions on the Radix network require XRD tokens to pay for transaction fees. This ensures smooth transaction processing and helps prevent spam or network abuse.

● Staking and Network Security - The XRD token is used in the staking mechanism of the Radix network. Holders can stake their XRD to secure the network. In return, stakers can receive rewards, usually additional XRD tokens, as a reward for their contribution to network security and stability. Radix has a very innovative native staking system, so Radix does not need third-party providers like Lido - a self-issuing protocol for fully liquid staking tokens.

How is the Radix network secured?

Radix uses a unique BFT-style consensus algorithm called Cerberus. The research process lasted for seven years, starting in 2013 and culminated in the Cerberus Whitepaper in 2020.

In its final form, Cerberus represents a completely different model in the design of decentralized Ledger Technology systems. This is the only protocol designed so that all transactions are created atomically across shards. This is an important feature if DeFi wants to scale to billions of users.

Cerberus is also supported by the Radix network’s Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) system to protect against Sybil attacks. This is where XRD token holders can delegate staking to validator node runners.

You can check the price of XRD here.